[05/04/09 - 01:07 PM]AMC's Award Winning Series ''Mad Men'' Begins Production of Third Season on Monday, May 4thThe new season is scheduled to premiere in August.

[via press release from AMC]

AMC's Award Winning Series ''Mad Men'' Begins Production of Third Season on Monday, May 4th

Produced by Lionsgate, New Season Set to Debut in August 2009

NEW YORK, NY - May 4, 2009 - AMC announced today the start of production on season three of its award-winning and critically acclaimed original drama series, "Mad Men." Created, written and executive produced by Matthew Weiner (Executive Producer/Writer, "The Sopranos"), "Mad Men" follows the personal and professional lives of New York advertising execs circa 1960. Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF), the leading independent filmed entertainment studio, produces the series for AMC. Season three is scheduled to premiere in August 2009.

"Mad Men" debuted on AMC in July 2007 to great acclaim. The series has gone on to win six Emmy Awards, including the Emmy for Outstanding Drama, the first ever for a basic cable network. It is also the only basic cable series to win the Golden Globe award two years in a row (2007 and 2008) for Best Television Series-Drama. It has gained unprecedented recognition and has been hailed as, "One of the most critically acclaimed TV shows ever," by the New York Post. TV Guide called it, "madly, marvelously mesmerizing," while The New York Times said, "It's a sleek, hard boiled drama with a soft, satirical core." USA Today said, "If this is the future of TV, the future is looking good."

About AMC

AMC is a multi-platform network that celebrates movies and high-quality scripted series. Among the elite services available in nearly 97 million homes (Source: Nielsen Media Research), AMC defines what it means to be a movie network today, creating a distinctive viewing experience that celebrates all that is enduringly cool, personal and powerfully relevant about movies. AMC's comprehensive library of popular movies strike a meaningful chord with its audience, and its critically-acclaimed slate of originals all have a cinematic quality that allow them to complement and be complemented by some of the best movies of all time. In 2008 AMC won 8 Emmys, the most wins by a basic cable network in any single year. AMC is a subsidiary of Rainbow Media Holdings LLC, which includes sister networks IFC, WE tv and Sundance Channel.

About Lionsgate

Lionsgate is the leading independent filmed entertainment studio, generating two consecutive years of $300 million-plus domestic theatrical box office, operating a $500 million-plus home entertainment business and producing a broad slate of prime time television series for fiscal 2007. It is a premier producer and distributor of motion pictures, television programming, home entertainment, family entertainment, and video-on-demand content. Its prestigious and prolific library of more than 10,000 titles is a valuable source of stable, recurring revenue and a foundation for the growth of the Company's core businesses. The Lionsgate brand is synonymous with original, daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world.